


but it starts to hurt

by spacebubble



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Accidental Stimulation, Ferengi, Ficlet, Light Angst, M/M, Manhandling, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Voice Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 06:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15880620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebubble/pseuds/spacebubble
Summary: Another day, another explosion on Terok Nor. Odo investigates. Quark complains, but not about everything he could be complaining about. It's hard to keep his thoughts straight when Odo keeps getting into his personal space.





	but it starts to hurt

**Author's Note:**

> [title inspo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3T2RnTBp_4).

The first time Quark notices Odo getting a touch too close is when they're surveying the latest explosion on the Promenade. 

Their shoulders keep bumping into one another, but Odo doesn't seem to notice - he's too busy investigating the full extent of the damage and also interrogating Quark, turning to him to ask follow-up questions, seemingly not caring whenever his mouth almost bumps into Quark's lobes.

Quark, for his part, tells himself Odo doesn't know any better. He's learned everything he could about the new chief of security ever since they met. There isn't much - his contacts on Bajor exhausted all their usual sources, but Odo's past before he was discovered as an unknown sample remains a mystery. Still, Quark's met enough scientists to know that growing up in a laboratory isn't the prime environment for learning social rules.

Such as, for example, how close - or not close - to stand near someone.

Quark's not sure if it would be easier if Odo had any body heat. Normally when he's this close to someone - arm to arm, sometimes cheek to cheek - he could feel the other person's body heat radiating off of them.

But he feels nothing from Odo, no temperature at all. Nothing except the rising heat in his own cheeks, the faint flush of blood coursing its way up to his lobes.

Odo remains oblivious, as usual. He doesn't care that every time he reaches around Quark to examine a piece of debris, or every time he leans over Quark to get a closer look at something charred and melted, he's practically shoving Quark against the nearest surface.

It's only when his back bumps into a rough piece of fallen pylon, and the jagged metal digs into his spine through his jacket, that Quark remembers to complain.

"Ow!"

Odo pauses to glance down at him - a comically freakish sight, given that Odo's neck is stretched almost twice his body's height above his shoulders. All the better to see the damaged join of the pylon, Quark supposes. He'd laugh if he weren't sandwiched between Odo's chest and the irregular metal pressing into him.

"What are you doing there?" Odo asks, voice sounding faraway.

"You _trapped_ me," Quark replies, exasperated. He lifts his hands up to shove at Odo's chest, then winces as the action makes the pylon dig deeper into his shoulderblades. " _Move_."

Odo grunts in acknowledgement from half a dozen feet above Quark's head, making his chest faintly ripple underneath Quark's palms, then leans away just enough for Quark to wriggle his escape.

"Not so fast," Odo calls out, and there's an unpleasantly _gelatinous_ sound as Odo retracts his neck to a normal length. His hand shoots out to grab Quark by the upper arm. "You still haven't finished telling me about the traders."

"Ow," Quark whines. "Not so hard!"

Odo doesn't apologize, but he loosens his grip slightly. "The traders who won triple dabo shortly before the explosion."

Quark tries to tug his arm away. It's futile. He sighs. "Can we at least go the Infirmary? My back hurts from when _you_ pushed me into the pylon."

Still without apology, Odo stretches his neck just enough to peer behind Quark. "I don't see any punctures."

Quark blinks. Odo's mouth is dangerously close to his ear again. "Uh."

"Your clothing is undamaged."

Odo's voice happens to hit Ferengi Seductive Register Number Three, not that the stupid shapeshifter would know anything about that. But Quark still feels a little light-headed anyway.

"You sure?" Quark asks faintly, heat rising to his cheeks again. Odo's still holding onto his arm, and their current position has Quark almost nuzzling the crook of Odo's (freakishly long) neck.

He jumps when he feels Odo's hand slide up the bottom of his coattails, lifting up his jacket.

"I'm sure," Odo replies, voice gravelly and low, sliding easily into Seductive Register Number Four. Quark gulps. "And I do not see any blood seeping from your shirt. At the most, you might have light bruising."

"Oh," Quark says, barely swallowing a broken whimper. "Okay."

Much to his relief, Odo stops lifting up his jacket. Quark's coattails unceremoniously swish back down, lightly caressing the back of his legs.

Soon enough, Odo's resumed his usual neck length, and Quark's looking back up into Odo's eyes, at their normal height. Whatever passes for normal for Odo's freakishly unblinking self, anyway.

"Gul Dukat doesn't permit Infirmary visits for mere bruising," Odo reminds him.

"Oh, right." Quark blinks rapidly, as if he were making up for Odo's lack of it. 

"You do seem somewhat disoriented, however." Odo scrutinizes him, leaning minutely closer. Had Odo been anyone else, Quark might have assumed he was about to kiss him. 

But it's only Odo. Stupid, killjoy, oblivious Odo, staring at Quark like he's no more than another piece of evidence, a mere clue for solving a much bigger puzzle. 

Doesn't stop Quark from getting turned on, though.

"Disoriented," Quark repeats dumbly. He nods and the motion almost bumps their noses together. "Yeah."

"So perhaps you should visit the Infirmary anyway."

Quark shivers at the sound of Odo seamlessly slipping into Register Number Five, which should only ever be employed by the _closest_ of business partners. 

He ought to bring it up, but all that manages to come out of his mouth is a wavering reply.

"Okay," Quark says.

"You're trembling." Odo tilts his head to observe him, and Quark's heart races at the thought of closing the distance between them. "Perhaps your nerves suffered more than I thought."

"Uh-huh?" Quark bites his lip. "I guess?"

He yelps as Odo begins marching them down the Promenade, but before he can complain again, he can't help noticing that Odo's not as rough as usual - it's still not _gentle_ , and it's still a form of manhandling, but it's almost - considerate? Like Odo's trying to support him and hold him steady, instead of dragging him off.

Quark can't help smiling as they make their way through the still-smoldering crime scene.


End file.
